A typhoon victim keeps her husband alive by manually pumping air into his lungs after a leg amputation led to an infection. The couple were at at Tacloban's Divine Word Hospital, which was still without electrical power seven days after the typhoon hit.

A Typhoon Haiyan survivor puts up a plywood wall in his damaged house in Marabu. As an international aid effort gathered steam, Filipinos in battered towns started rebuilding their lives -- with or without help from their government or foreign aid groups.

A Filipino typhoon victim cuddles a religious icon while waiting to board a C-130 plane in the devastated city of Tacloban. Efforts to help survivors of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines have picked up, although the government admitted the pace was still slow a week after the storm left thousands dead and hundreds of thousands homeless.

A tattered Philippines flag is whipped by the wind above the devastation of Tacloban. The official death toll in the Philippines from one of the world's strongest typhoons rose to 1,833, with many towns still unheard from.

Rescue workers from France work in darkness to set up their gear after arriving at the airport in the devastated city of Tacloban. International aid poured in for the Philippines as authorities stepped up efforts to reach survivors driven to looting after one of the world's strongest typhoons devastated their towns.

Survivors look up at a military C-130 plane as it arrives in typhoon-ravaged Tacloban, on Leyte island in the Philippines, on Monday. Stunned survivors of one of the most powerful typhoons ever to make landfall picked through the remains of their homes and pleaded for food and medicine.

Central Philippines devastated by Typhoon Haiyan

[Updated Nov. 17, 2013] TACLOBAN, the Philippines — In the chaos after Typhoon Haiyan, Malou Cabiao had lost all track of time. It was only when she heard church bells ringing that she realized it was Sunday.

Rain poured through blown-out windows and gaping holes in the roof, soaking the broken pews. Worshipers opened umbrellas and lifted their voices in song.
Survivors of one of the worst storms on record, many of them homeless and grieving lost loved ones, sought solace Sunday at ruined churches in Tacloban and other hard-hit cities. More than 80% of the country’s 100 million people are Roman Catholic, a legacy of Spanish colonial rule.

[Updated Nov. 14, 2013] WASHINGTON — The aircraft carrier George Washington and four other Navy ships in Leyte Gulf in the Philippines on Thursday were preparing to begin relief operations for survivors of Typhoon Haiyan, Navy officials said.

Rear Adm. Mark Montgomery, the commander of the George Washington Strike Group, said the carrier and cruisers Antietam and Cowpens will take up positions off the east coast of Samar island “to begin to assess the damage and to provide logistical and emergency support, including medical care and water supplies,” according to a Pentagon news release.

[Updated Nov. 13, 2013] MANILA — Five days after Typhoon Haiyan ripped through the central Philippines, panic was spreading Wednesday across the disaster zone and residents were resorting to increasingly desperate measures to stay alive.

Eight people were crushed to death when a huge crowd stormed a rice warehouse near Tacloban, one of the worst-hit cities, local authorities said. More than 100,000 bags of rice were carted away in the melee, according to local news reports Wednesday.

Elsewhere, residents dug up underground pipes and smashed them open to get water.

MANILA — Four days after Typhoon Haiyan blew away their homes and livelihoods, most Philippine victims — in far-flung flooded coastal communities — have so far been unable to obtain assistance, aid workers say.

The United Nations on Tuesday launched an appeal for $301 million to help victims, and U.S. and British warships headed toward the region.